Friday, September 14, 2018

Squirrelly Acrobatics

WAFFLES:  Boss! The neighbors are here for dinner.


KATIE:  Those aren't the neighbors, Waffles. Those are squirrels. 


WAFFLES:  Did you invite them over or something? Because they're eating our tree.

KATIE:  They're not eating the tree, Waffles. They're gathering pinecones for winter. 

WAFFLES:  Like for decorating?


SQUIRREL:  Decorating??? You're kidding, right?


KATIE:  I'm afraid not, Mr. Squirrel. Apparently, you've never met Waffles.


SQUIRREL:  Well a squirrel's gotta eat. It's not like we've got pizza delivery up here, you know. 


SQUIRREL:  GERONIMO!!!


Our Friendly Neighborhood Pine Squirrels
When Gloman was home recently, our squirrels put on quite the show for us. We were all mesmerized by the dining room window. He grabbed Glogirly's camera and caught ALL the action.


This tiny, little squirrel was jumping from branch to branch like an acrobat on our tallest tree. He was grabbing the pinecones with his hands and mouth and tossing them down to the ground. He was moving SO fast, it looked like it was raining pinecones.

Did you know a single pine squirrel can clip HUNDREDS of cones per hour? The harvesting starts in the late summer and continues through fall. This was the first time we saw it first hand. And right outside our window.



Once he's dropped his bounty, he'll wait until the coast is clear to come back and gather all the clipped cones, one by one. He buries them in middens, which are loose piles of cone scales, cores of eaten cones and fully intact cones. These middens will get him through the winter. Whenever he's hungry, he'll just dig up a cone and nibble away on the scales and protein-rich seeds.

Special thanks to Gloman for his mad squirrel-photography skills!

27 comments:

  1. Such fun TV you all have to watch! Awesome pics.

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  2. What fun photos! That was an especially good episode of Squirrel TV!

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  3. Those photos are amazing!
    I don't know if it is just me but I always have trouble commenting here. The comment form rarely appears, I refresh, it appears then as soon as try to comment it disappears again. This time I tried reading from home instead of going directly to this post and clicking on comments and it has worked. I hope it is not just a one off and I can do it this way in future.

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  4. wow - those pictures are amazing. no wonder Waffles and Katie enjoy squirrel tv so much

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  5. Great photos of those little squirrels. Ours area also out in force, preparing for winter. We heard one yelling at another one--it sounded like a little duck but it was the squirrel.

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  6. You guys are so lucky that you have all that squirrel TV, and that Glogirly and Gloman can take such awesome photos.

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  7. Awesome photos! Your squirrels have the routine down to an art.

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  8. What a fantastic squirrel show to watch!
    Manny & CB would be out of their minds...!!!

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  9. We never knew squirrels gathered pinecones. We only thought it was nuts. That is some awesome Squirrel TV you get to watch.

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  10. We had no idea. Busy criters, aren't they?

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  11. Nature is so interesting to watch. What a great premiere show for you all.

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  12. We love the photos of the squirrels and didn’t know all those fun facts about their pine cone collecting skills!

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  13. OMC I am a SQUIRREL FREAK and I LOVE THESE! I love the one closer to the top that looks like the squirrel is smiling lol. I pinned like 3 of these on my squirrel board!

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  14. This was such a great learning experience. That squirrel is not messing around. It's wonderful that you were able to get so many great photos of the squirrel in action. Katie and Waffles, do you want an extra dinner guest for next time? Thanks for the share. Have a great rest of your weekend.
    World of Animals

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  15. Pawsome photos ! Squirrel TV looks like a lot of action ! Purrs

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  16. Those goofy squirrels sure are fun to watch! Thanks for the kind words about Sister Precious, she sure is missed here.

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  17. Our squirrels here in Utah do the same thing, but they carry the pinecones down and place them in piles on the south side of our pine trees for storage. Amazing and fun to watch. And Gloman's photos are awesome!

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  18. The squirrels around here seem to store their pine cones in my car engine!!!! :O

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